\nSwarup das (ACBSP): This story is from my memoirs (that I\u2019ve been trying to consolidate into a book for the past few years).
\nI met Usika at the Henry Street, Brooklyn temple in \u201871. At the time his name was Ezekiel. He was initiated and given the name Usika in July of that year when Srila Prabhupada came to Brooklyn. Unlike just about all of us who were in our 20\u2019s .. Usika was either just south or north of 50. He was crotchety, moody, cynical and impatient when it came to his dealings with \u201cyou young people\u201d as he called us. He had strong convictions in the philosophy and had a deep and sincere reverence for Srila Prabhupada.
\nOne day I found a pair of reading glasses with the name \u201cJack Stonebrook\u201d glued to the inside of the frame. They looked like Usika\u2019s eyeglasses but I remembered his name was Ezekiel and not Jack. I asked him if the glasses were his and he confirmed that they were. Next obvious question was \u201cWho then is Jack Stonebrook?\u201d \u201cOh, that\u2019s me. That\u2019s my real name. Ezekiel is the name my spirit guide gave me.\u201d His answer certainly got my attention. I had to hear the story and he was more than happy to tell it.
\nUsika was the father of a devotee girl named Susan who was eventually initiated with the name Shasti. Shasti\u2019s mother died at a young age and Usika raised her by himself. Shasti was the wife of Mohanananda who helped begin and run the Dallas gurukula for awhile. He left ISKCON in the late 70\u2019s and tried to become a Hollywood Producer. He (Michael Walker was his legal name) was Associate Producer of one movie that I know of .. an animated film called \u201cThe Last Unicorn.\u201d Anyway\u2026 Shasti, Usika\u2019s daughter, was clairvoyant .. a medium. She channeled various spirits and sometimes using ouija boards or tarot cards made contact with beings from other dimensions. The first of several \u201cspirit guides\u201d gave them the names Ezekiel and Alice. They would ask all sorts of questions of these guides and as their questions got deeper and their thirst for knowledge of higher truths increased they were handed over to higher beings for the answers they were seeking.
\nThe last of their guides was named \u201cKismet.\u201d He told them that the knowledge they were looking for was in a book but he didn\u2019t tell them the name of the book \u2026 just to go to a bookstore and begin looking. They did. They roamed around for over an hour and Alice wasn\u2019t getting any signals nor clues. Finally they gave up and just grabbed some book about Zen and went to the counter to pay for it. While the owner rang up their purchase suddenly a book fell from a shelf behind the cash register. It was the first abridged Bhagavad-gita As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. They bought it, read it \u2026 and the rest, as they say \u2026 is history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"